#StopSendingArms: Die VDJ unterstützt die von mehr als 100 internationalen Organisationen unterzeichnete Erklärung zum Stopp von Waffenlieferung an Israel!
Die VDJ fordert die Bundesregierung auf, das in ihrer Macht stehende zu tun, um der Entscheidung des Internationalen Gerichtshofs (IGH) zur Wirksamkeit zu verhelfen. Die Bundesregierung sollte ihre voreilige Unterstützung für Israel in dem Hauptsacheverfahren vor dem IGH zurückzuziehen. Der IGH hat alle Länder aufgefordert, die Gefahr des Völkermords in Gaza durch Israel mit allen Mitteln zu begegnen. Die Bundesregierung muss deshalb die Waffenlieferungen an Israel beenden und sich für eine sofortige Waffenruhe einsetzen, um nicht selbst mitverantwortlich für einen möglichen Völkermord in Gaza zu werden.
Wir veröffentlichen hier den englischen Text der Erklärung:
#StopSendingArms - An Open Call to all UN Member States to stop fuelling the crisis in Gaza and avert further humanitarian catastrophe and loss of civilian life
We, the undersigned organisations, call on all States to immediately halt the transfer of weapons, parts, and ammunition to Israel and Palestinian armed groups while there is risk they are used to commit or facilitate serious violations of international humanitarian or human rights law.
Israel’s bombardment and siege are depriving the civilian population of the basics to survive and rendering Gaza uninhabitable. Today, the civilian population in Gaza faces a humanitarian crisis of unprecedented severity and scale.
Furthermore, Palestinian armed group-led attacks killed around 1,200 people and took hundreds of Israeli and foreign hostages, including children, and continue to hold more than 130 hostages captive inside Gaza. Armed groups in Gaza have continued to indiscriminately fire rockets toward population centers in Israel, disrupting school for children, displacing and threatening the lives and well being of civilians. Hostage-taking and indiscriminate attacks are violations of international humanitarian law and must end immediately.
Humanitarian agencies, human rights groups, United Nations officials, and more than 153 member states have called for an immediate ceasefire. However, Israel continues to use explosive weapons and munitions in densely populated areas with massive humanitarian consequences for the people of Gaza. World leaders have urged the Israeli government to reduce civilian casualties, yet Israeli military operations in Gaza continue to kill people at unprecedented levels, according to recent remarks by the UN Secretary-General. Member states have a legal responsibility to use all possible tools to leverage better protection of civilians and adherence to international humanitarian law. Gaza’s remaining lifeline – an internationally-funded humanitarian aid response – has been paralyzed by the intensity of the hostilities, which have included the shooting of aid convoys, recurrent communications blackouts, damaged roads, restrictions on essential supplies, an almost complete ban on commercial supplies, and a bureaucratic process to send aid into Gaza.
Israel’s military activity has destroyed a substantial portion of Gaza’s homes, schools, hospitals, water infrastructure, shelters, and refugee camps; the indiscriminate nature of these bombings and, a pattern of apparently disproportionate civilian harm they routinely cause, is unacceptable. The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights has warned of the “heightened risk of atrocity crimes” being committed in Gaza and called on all states to prevent such crimes from unfolding. Since this call, the humanitarian crisis in Gaza has only deteriorated further:
- More than 25,000 Palestinians, at least 10,000 of them children, have been killed in less than four months, according to the Ministry of Health in Gaza. Thousands more are buried under the rubble and presumed dead.
- More than 62,000 people have been injured, many with life-changing injuries that will leave them with permanent disabilities; these include more than 1,000 Palestinian children who have lost one or more of their upper or lower limbs.
- An unknown number of Palestinian civilians, reportedly including children, have been unlawfully detained, according to the UN, and must be released.
- Palestinians continue to be killed nearly every day in areas the Israeli government told them to flee. In the first week of 2024, an Israeli airstrike killed 14 people - the majority children - near an area Israeli forces prescribed as a “humanitarian zone.”
- Over 85% of Gaza’s population, around 1.9 million people, has been forcibly displaced. Many followed Israeli-issued orders to relocate south and are now being squeezed into tiny pockets of land that cannot sustain human life, which have become breeding ground for the spread of disease.
- More than half of a million Palestinians in Gaza face starvation and more than 90% of the population faces acute food insecurity, the highest proportion ever recorded by a technical humanitarian body responsible for making evidence-based assessments of food insecurity.
- More than 70% of Gaza’s homes, much of its schools, and its water and sanitation infrastructure have been destroyed or damaged and left the population with almost no access to clean water.
- Not a single medical facility in the enclave is fully operational and those partially functioning are overwhelmed with trauma cases and shortages of medical supplies and doctors. More than 300 health workers have been killed.
- At least 167* aid workers in Gaza have been killed, the highest of any conflict in this century.
Gaza today is the most dangerous place to be a child, a journalist, and an aid worker. Hospitals and schools should never become battlegrounds. These conditions have created a situation of utter desperation inside Gaza, leading top aid officials to declare that there are no longer the conditions for a meaningful humanitarian response in Gaza. This will not change until the siege, the bombardment and the fighting ends. The United Nations recently described humanitarian access in January so far as a “significant deterioration.” Israeli forces have repeatedly denied permission for aid convoys to reach areas north of Wadi Gaza where people are at the highest risk of starvation.
In recent weeks, high ranking Israeli officials have begun calling for the deportation of Palestinian civilians out of Gaza. The forcible transfer within Gaza and deportation of a portion of the population across borders, lacking any guarantees of return, would constitute a serious violation of international law, amounting to an atrocity crime.
We demand an immediate ceasefire and call on all states to halt the transfer of weapons that can be used to commit violations of international humanitarian and human rights law. The UN Security Council must fulfill its responsibility to maintain global peace and security by adopting measures to halt the transfer of weapons to the Government of Israel and Palestinian armed groups and prevent the supply of arms that risk being used in the commission of international crimes, effective immediately.
All states have the obligation to prevent atrocity crimes and promote adherence to norms that protect civilians. The international community is long overdue to live up to these commitments.
Undersigned
- Amnesty International
- Norwegian Refugee Council
- Save the Children
- Oxfam
- Federation Handicap International - Humanity & Inclusion
- War Child Alliance
- Christian Aid
- Norwegian People’s Aid
- Médecins du Monde International Network
- Mennonite Central Committee
- Medico international
- Center for Civilians in Conflict (CIVIC)
- Danish Refugee Council
- Plan International
- Diakonia
- American Friends Service Committee (AFSC)
- Welfare Association
- War on Want
- War Childhood Museum Foundation
- WESPAC Foundation, Inc.
- United Nations Association - UK
- Bangladesh Nari Progati Sangha (BNPS)
- Human Rights Sentinel
- IM Swedish Development Partner
- Firefly International
- UOSSM GE
- Nonviolent Peaceforce
- Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East (CJPME)
- Yemen Relief and Reconstruction Foundation
- France Palestine Mental Health Network
- Syrian Network for Human Rights.
- INGO ALG CONSULTANT GROUP
- Arab Renaissance for Democracy and Development
- Global Centre for the Responsibility to Protect
- Middle East Democracy Center (MEDC)
- The National Organization of Yemeni Reporters SADA
- UJFP
- Development and Peace - Caritas Canada
- EmpowerVan
- Train of Hope Dortmund e.V.
- Jewish Network for Palestine
- مدافعات للحقوق والحريات والتنميه
- PELDA
- Ina autra senda - Swiss Friends of Combatants for Peace
- Street Child
- Polish Medical Mission
- Peace SOS
- Gender Advisory Team
- Olof Palmes Internationella Center
- Cordaid
- Street Child España
Share The World's Resources
Church and Peace - Ecumenical Peace Church Network in Europe
Terre des Hommes Netherlands
Plateforme des ONG françaises pour la Palestine
PAX
EuroMed Rights
CAFOD
Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies (CIHRS)
Secours catholique caritas France
Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions - UK
Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions - Germany
Legal Action Worldwide (LAW)
Cordaid
MADRE
ReThinking Foreign Policy
pax christi - Deutsche Sektion e.V.
Vredesactie
Lawyers for Palestinian Human Rights
Network for Children's Rights
The United Church of Canada
The Busines Plan for Peace
Danish Muslim Aid
Peace Direct
Belgian Academics and Artists for Palestine (BA4P)
The United Church of Canada
Institute on Statelessness and Inclusion
International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War (IPPNW) Germany
Initiatives et Changement
WeWorld
Equal Legal Aid
Action Corps
Greek affiliate of IPPNW
KAIROS Canadian Ecumenical Justice Initiatives
Committee of 100 in Finland
Khulumani Support Group
Amos Trust
Centre for Peace Research and Advocacy -CPRA
Avaaz
Christian Jewish Allies for a Just Peace in Israel/Palestine
Salam For Yemen
Emmaus International
Palestinian farmers union
Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)
Peace Action
Consortium of Ethiopian Human Rights Organizations
ForcesWatch
Global Ministries of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) and the United Church of Christ
The Presbyterian Church in Canada
Ciusss centre sud
Centre for Feminist Foreign Policy
The Dallaire Institute for Children Peace and Security
Creatura Think & Do Tank ry
The Hague Peace Projects
Anglican Pacifist Fellowship
Nonviolence International
Primate's World Relief and Development Fund
The Anglican Church of Canada/L'Eglise anglican du Canada
Ekō
Internationale Liga für Menschenrechte
Young Christian Students Movement South Africa
Laurentiuskonvent e.V.
Socialist Movement of Ghana
Swedish Fellowship of Reconciliation
Japan Fellowship of Reconciliation
EgyptWide for Human Rights
Pax Christi International
Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada
Sanad Basra Organization for Human Rights
Association Pour Jérusalem
Community of Christ
Women Volunteers for Peace
Forum Computer Professionals for Peace and Societal Responsibility
Vereinigung Demokratischer Juristinnen und Juristen e.V. (VDJ)
AFPS Paris-Sud
Culture de Palestine
Kristna Fredsrörelsen / SweFOR
Christian CND
Medical Association for Prevention of War
HelpAge International
Quakers in Scotland (General Meeting for Scotland)
Forum Ziviler Friedensdienst e. V.
DAWN MENA
Japan International Volunteer Center (JVC)
NVMP-Artsen voor vrede
ActionAid France
Forum Computer Professionals for Peace and Societal Responsibility (FIfF) e.V.
Pax Christi Scotland
Shujaa-Initiative
Pax Christi Italia
Pax Christi - Perú
Center for Jewish Nonviolence
Peace Movement Aotearoa
Center for Peace Education, Miriam College
Amos Trust
